Migrating a build from RPi3 to Rpi4?

[sibsonian]

Hi all. New user here.

See above subject.

Im wondering if this is possible to do and if so, could someone share resources, guides, information, etc in this thread? I've looked around the intarwebs and haven't been able to find anything.

Current build is on an RPi3b+ with RetroPie 4.6 on a 128gb microSD
Hoping to migrate to RPi4 board with 8GB on the same capacity card, albeit a faster one.

Any help is appreciated! Thanks!

[ReadyPlayaWon]

@sibsonian

you're gonna have to back everything up ... then install Retropie for Raspberry Pi 4 (your Pi 3 version of Retropie will not work on a Pi4) on the SD Card and then restore the backup.

more info below.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/26087/pi-3-b-to-pi-4-b/8

[YFZdude]

@sibsonian
Here is my shot at a step by step guide for you:

1. Create a backup of your existing SD Card as explained here in Option 1 : https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#making-a-backup
   (This is a good idea regardless, but technically if you are migrating to a different SD card, you could skip it at your own risk.)

2. Backup the contents of the important folders as in Option 2 found here: https://retropie.org.uk/docs/Updating-RetroPie/#backup-option-2
   (It's the same page, but next section.)

3. Install a fresh image on the Pi 4.

4. Copy over the contents of the folders from Step 2 to your new system.

This should keep your system working as you had it configured on the Pi 3.

[sibsonian]

Thanks guys.

This all makes sense. A follow up would be:

Ive updated and installed several packages, themes, etc. and Ive kept a changelog as Ive made additions/subtractions to the base image file (for seaftey purposes).

I know the configs dir will migrate the artwork and ES settings. Common sense would lead me to believe that I would also need to reinstall any optional packages and themes, yes?

If I'm mistaken please let me know

Thanks!

[YFZdude]

@sibsonian said in Migrating a build from RPi3 to Rpi4?:

I know the configs dir will migrate the artwork and ES settings. Common sense would lead me to believe that I would also need to reinstall any optional packages and themes, yes?

Correct.
You will need to install the optional packages that don't come standard on the image.